The AIS provides standardized terminology to describe injuries and ranks injuries by severity. Current AIS users include, health organizations for clinical trauma management, outcome evaluation and for case mix adjustment purposes; motor vehicle crash investigators to identify mechanism of injury and improve vehicle design; and researchers for epidemiological studies and systems development, all of which may influence public policy (laws and regulations).

Some users are interested in its standardized injury descriptor capabilities; some are interested only in its injury severity assessment; and some in both. The AIS Uses and Techniques course allows people to learn how to correctly code injuries according to established rules and guidelines, which increases interrater reliability worldwide.

Health and research records of all types may be coded in a prospective manner. AIS codes may be assigned using algorithms that map other commonly used disease and injury codes — such as the WHO-originated International Classification of Diseases. Some of these maps have been programmed into trauma registry and medical record software, and may be proprietary tools. Some others have been made available by the original developers.

AIS 2015

AIS 2015, is now available and incorporates the needs of its users and the current status of traumatic injury diagnosis and documentation. AIS 2015 is the next step in the continual evolution of traumatic injury classification and scaling. This newest revision improves brain injury coding, spinal cord impairment coding and enhances many code definitions by incorporating current and appropriate medical terminology.